"Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy" - Thomas Lux

"Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy"(Thomas Lux)

For some semitropical reason when the
rains fall relentlessly
they fallinto swimming pools, these otherwise bright
and scaryarachnids.
They can swima little,
but not for longand they can’t climb the ladder out.They
usually drown—but if you
want their favor,if you
believe there is justice, a reward
for not lovingthe death of uglyand even
dangerous (the eel, hog snake, rats)
creatures, ifyou believe these things, then you would
leave a lifebuoyor two in
your swimming pool at night.And in the morning you would
haul ashorethe
huddled, hairy survivorsand escort themback to
the bush, and know,be
assured that at least these saved, as
individuals, would not turn upagain somedayin your
hat, drawer,or the
tangled underworldof your socks, and that even—when your
belief in justicemerges
with your belief in dreams—they may
tell the othersin a sign language four
times as subtleand
complicated as man’sthat you are good, that you
love them,that you
would save them again.

"Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy" by Thomas
Lux (1946-2017) appears in New
and Selected Poems 1975-1995.Lux lived in Atlanta, a town that
knows a thing or two about hot-rainy-weather spiders and other crawly things.
He was the Bourne Professor of Poetry and director of the McEver Visiting
Writers program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and directed the Poetry
@ Tech program. He downplayed the idea of surrealism apparent in his work, but
commented that "Sometimes there are lucky accidents though I think they’re
more likely to happen if one has sweat a little blood." His collections
INCLUDE Child Made of Sand (2012) and
God Particles (2008).